Make No Sound
by skullgirllove
Summary: Done for a prompt. After his rescue from the Seine Javert suffers damage to his brain causing him to become mute. Eventual JV/V. May change the rating later based on feedback.
1. Chapter 1

Javert's world came into focus slowly as though a black veil was being lifted from over his eyes. White walls, a clean, sterile smell so different from the smell of rotting garbage and dirty bodies that enveloped the streets of Paris. His memory was hazy at best and his brow furrowed as he tried to summon up the last thing could recall before he ended up here. He'd been at the barricade in disguise, the little brat Gavroche had ratted him out. They were going to kill him the leader had given the gun to….

Valjean! Suddenly it all flooded back. Being alone with the criminal in the alleyway littered with the fallen students. The gleam of the knife as it was revealed, the steel caressing his wrists quickly, only to pull away again. The pain had never come. Valjean had freed him and looking into the ex-prisoner's face Javert had realized that Valjean looked unbelievably tired. It was not the angry, hard, face of the prisoner, the animal, Javert had known in Toulon. It was the face of a man who had been running his whole life and didn't want to run anymore. And in that moment Javert felt his tidy, ordered world collapse around him.

The rest was unimportant. Javert remembered of course. He had gone to the bridge overlooking the river, looked into the dark water below. It seemed to be beckoning him, tempting him to leave the troubles of the world behind and fall into it's cold embrace. Javert had been sorely tempted and for the first time in his life he gave in to it and fell. And that, he had assumed, would be the end of it.

A sudden coughing fit made him lean over the side of his bed (since when had he been in a bed?) and expel some of the river water that clogged his lungs. His throat burned as he began to breath again proving beyond a doubt that he was in fact alive.

He looked around taking in his surrounding again now that things had come into focus a bit more. He was in a hospital in a bed. His police uniform had been removed and he lay in a dry white gown at least a size too small for him. An unpleasant frown blackened Javert's face. He had no clue who would have had the desire to save him for his watery grave but who ever it was was sure to be disappointed. With great effort he pulled himself out of bed, planning to walk out of this confounded place and right back to the river where he should rightfully be resting now. That had been the plan anyways, in reality he stood shakily for perhaps 5 seconds before his legs buckled beneath him and he tumbled ungracefully to the floor.

Confused and somewhat embarrassed he attempted to stand once more. His right leg obeyed him well enough but his left leg merely hung there like a piece of meat. Javert mentally commanded it to move. It did not. Worried he tapped the top of his thigh with his hand. He could not feel it. Just as he was beginning to work himself into a panic the door opened and a man walked it.

"What on earth are you doing Inspector?" The man asked, bending to help him up. "You shouldn't be out of bed. The doctor said you might have some damage after being underwater so long. He said the lack of air might have affected your mind." Javert looked up, intent on telling the man that he could mind his own business before he had him arrested. He remembered then he had resigned from the force. This really was dreadfully embarrassing. As he looked up his jaw dropped and a snarl twisted his lips. He opened his mouth, a cry of "240601!" on his lips. Nothing happened. He blinked and tried again. Still no sounds left his mouth. One hand went to his throat, eyes wide in fear and confusion.

"Javert?" Valjean questioned a worried look in his brown eyes. Javert really did begin to panic then, gripping his hair tightly in his fists, his mouth moving furiously although no sounds resulted from the action. Javert could not speak.


	2. Chapter 2

An hour or so later the two men sat in the hospital room, Javert back in the bed and Valjean in a chair across from him. Valjean had managed to get the ex-inspector to calm down long enough for him to summon a doctor. The man had confirmed that Javert had been partially paralyzed, making walking impossible without a cane. Being mute was yet another side effect of his attempted suicide (although Valjean had told the hospital staff Javert merely fell.) Javert had only to look up at the cross on the wall to understand why.

Neither man spoke for several moments, the tension in the room so thick it could have been cut with a knife. After a few tense seconds Valjean broke the silence.

"I wish I could have been there earlier." He said guiltily. "I'm sorry." Javert scowled at him before scribbling on the pad of paper before him. After a lot of frustrated miming they had decided writing notes would be the easiest way for Javert to communicate. When he was finished he shoved it towards Valjean.

_You should have left well enough alone 24601. _Valjean winced at the number.

"I think we've gotten to the point where we can address each other by name don't you?" Javert crossed his arms over his broad chest and shook his head like a stubborn child. Valjean gave a long-suffering sigh rubbing a hand across his face.

"I'm afraid this means you probably won't be returning to the force." Javert rolled his eyes.

_Irrelevant. I've resigned. _

"Resigned?" Valjean asked as though Javert had just said he could sprout wings and fly. "Whatever for?"

_You're a relatively smart man. _Javert wrote, the words practically dripping with contempt. _Figure it out for yourself. _Valjean graced him with a bemused smile.

"You know that's the closest thing to a compliment I've ever received from you."

_Don't flattery yourself 24601. _The silence returned and Javert offered up a silent prayer for small favors.

"You have much to live for." Valjean said at last. "Why would you throw that away?" Javert would have groaned in annoyance had he been able and proceeded to scribble furiously on his pad of paper.

_I neither need nor want your pity Valjean_, he said._ I did not ask you to play the hero and I certainly did not ask you to become involved with my personal affairs. Can you not merely leave me in peace?_

"I could ask the same of you. Consider it a taste of your own medicine."

_You broke the law. _

"You broke god's law." Valjean countered. "You threw away his greatest gift. The only man I can see doing that is a man in great pain." Javert turned his eyes away, glancing at the whitewashed wall and the cross that hung from it.

_What would you know of my pain?_

"All men have their own cross to bear." Valjean said. "Myself included. I just wish to know what pain could have been so great that it would drive you to such an end." Javert sighed.

_Perhaps I am tired. Surely you would understand that. _

"Tired of chasing me?" Javert shook his head.

_My world is upside down. A week ago everything seemed so clear-cut but now I am not so sure. _He paused his lips pressed in a thin line. _I saw an innocent child killed. He broke the law, they all did but he did not deserve to die. And you, you saved me. Why?_

"Because you are a good man." Javert scoffed at that. "I had no right to kill you."

_You had ever right! _Javert wrote and he looked very much as though he wanted to yell the words at Valjean. _I've hunted you, persecuted you all this time. Are you not tired? Were you not tempted to finally be at peace? _Valjean shook his head.

"Not that way." Javert scowled.

_Then you are a fool._

"Maybe." A long pause followed.

"Why are you tired Inspector?"

_You know I have never been married? _He responded. _Never loved another person never had a family. All my life I have been fighting against temptation, against distraction. My work has been my whole life. And when that fell through…. _He hesitated, scribbled out the last sentence and started again. _I see now that I may have been wrong my whole life. All the things I sacrificed, for nothing. I see lonely years stretched out before me working towards something I no longer think is right. I have been alone my whole life Valjean. I grow tired of the solitude. _

Javert expected a variety of different reactions at that but what he did not expect was for Valjean to start smiling than laughing heartily. Javert had never seen the former-convict laugh before.

"Oh don't worry I'm not making fun of you." Valjean said quickly once he saw Javert's dark expression. "I was just wondering at how blind you can be sometimes." Javert raised an eyebrow in question.

"How long have we know each other now Javert?" Valjean asked. "Over thirty years I believe. Far longer than my dear Cossette has been alive. In fact," he continued, "You have been in my life longer than you have not. You are, in fact Inspector, the only constant presence in my life. And I feel as though I can safely assume the same is true for you." Javert nodded hesitantly.

"I pulled you out of the river because, although I dearly wish we had met under different circumstances and yes I am tired of constantly hiding, a world with out you in it is not one I wish to live in." Javert blinked at him, unable to form a response even if it was in his power to do so. Valjean smiled warmly laying a hand gently on the ex-inspector's arm.

"You have never been alone Javert."


	3. Chapter 3

Javert was, to put it simply, put out. Some how or other Valjean had convinced him, and by convinced he meant he couldn't have protested if he wanted to, into staying with him. It was a humble house, Valjean found he didn't need much space since Cossette had left, but it was a palace in comparison to Javert's Spartan-like apartment. Incidentally he had left his landlady a note that he would no longer require her room when he resigned from the force. Although that was barely a week ago when Valjean went to collect a few of Javert's possessions he found the room already rented out and all of the furniture sold. Thus, Javert had been without a place to stay and Valjean (of course) offered him a place to stay. Javert had rolled his eyes in a way he hoped communicated that he was mute and not crazy therefore such accommodations were out of the question. Valjean raised his hand shaking his head.

"I won't take no for an answer." Realizing the irony of the comment a small grin crossed his face. Javert scowled and silently vowed that hell could freeze over and he would still not share a home with Jean Valjean.

A week later Javert found himself not only in Valjean's home but also with a large, rather irritable cat on his lap.

"Her name is Manon." Valjean had said brightly, patting the chubby feline on the head. "I'm sure you two will get along wonderfully."

_You really have gone mad Valjean. _Javert though, flinching away as the cat attempted to nuzzle his arm. _I take it being an empty nester does not agree with you. _

"Isn't she lovely?" Valjean continued, apparently perfectly content to have a one sided conversation. "She was wandering around on the street so hungry her bones were sticking out poor thing."

_I highly doubt this cat was even thin. _Javert thought irritably. The fat little thing seemed to have taken a liking to him, god help him, and he could not seem to make it leave him alone.

_Go on. _He thought. _Get out of here vermin. _He made a shooing gesture with his hand. The cat yawned and curled into a ball on his lap.

"Tea, Inspector?" Valjean asked, pouring himself a cup. Javert shrugged.

_If someone had told me a month ago, _he thought to himself. _ That the day would come when I was sitting in Valjean's sitting room, drinking tea with him with his stupid fat cat making a bed out of my legs I would have told them to lay of the drink. _

"I have to admit," Valjean said, breaking him out of his self-pitying thoughts, "I rather enjoy this version of you." Javert raised his eyebrow in question.

_Oh please explain 24601, I'm just DYING to hear it. _

"It's nice being in your presence without you preaching at me about sins and justice and my debt to society. You never did want to listen to what I had to say but," he spread his arms wide a smile on his face. "It appears you don't have much of a choice at the moment."

_Oh go ahead, mock me you convict, _Javert fumed, reluctantly accepting the cup of tea offered to him. _It's not as though this situation can possibly get worse. _

"But you did listen." Valjean said and the smile was gone from his face now. "You must have. I've been telling you for years that I am no more and no less than a man. What made you finally understand that?" Javert hesitated, scribbled a short note and passed it to Valjean.

_You showed me mercy._

"Yet you show yourself none." Javert angrily wrote another note and thrust it at the former-convict.

_Stop trying to understand me Valjean. You were right and I was wrong. Can we not leave it at that? _Valjean chuckled.

"You are so quick to judge yourself Javert." He said. " If I can find it in my heart to forgive you why can you not forgive yourself?" Javert did not reply obviously and though Valjean looked as though he wanted to continue the conversation he decided to let it drop.

"Do you take sugar?" Javert grudgingly raised the first two finger of his left hand and Valjean, obliging, dropped to sugar cubes into his cup. Yes, Javert reasoned this was definitely hell. He hadn't imagined there being this many doilies.


End file.
